Best Free iPad App of the Week – The Design Museum Collection for iPad

Who doesn’t like free? And who doesn’t like great iPad apps? When the two come together it’s good stuff. With that in mind, we’d like to share our Best Free iPad App of the Week here every weekend.

This week’s pick is The Design Museum Collection for iPad. The Design Museum in London celebrates modern design. Here’s a little more background on it:

The Design Museum is one of the world’s leading museums devoted to architecture and industrial design. It is a charitable museum located by Tower Bridge on the South Side of the River Thames, London. Founded in 1989, the museum has hosted exhibitions showcasing some of the most important pioneers of design including Paul Smith, Zaha Hadid, Jonathan Ive, Manolo Blahnik, Saul Bass and Dieter Rams. The museum’s collection has over 2500 objects that range from the early modernism of the 1900s to the cutting edge of contemporary design. The collection celebrates the history of design in mass production and includes furniture, lighting, domestic appliances and communications technology.

I used to work in a design agency in London and have been to museum several times. It’s an impressive place.

Here’s a slice of the App Store description of the app:

The Design Museum Collection App for iPad presents 59 remarkable objects from London’s Design Museum; these key pieces from the collection are explored through film, audio, text and photographs. Search options include: time, material, colour, location, manufacturer and designer. Classic pieces include: the Anglepoise lamp, the Dyson vacuum, the Thonet chair, the Face magazine, the British telephone box, the Vespa and the Kindle, a recent addition to the Collection.The App includes video commentary from Deyan Sudjic, Design Museum Director, and Helen Charman, Design Museum Head of Learning. Stephen Bayley – Design Museum Founding Director has also written an observation on each item.

As you might expect, the app itself has a minimalist and simple UI that rightly places all the focus on the objects from the collection. The selection for this iPad app is great and covers a good range. From the classic K6 telephone box to the AK-47 assault weapon.

From the original gas pump to a striking looking Wiggle Chair.

And of course there are some very familiar classics like a Polaroid camera, and iMac, and Dyson vacuum.

You can filter the images by category – the categories are: Architecture, Furniture, Graphics, Product, and Transport. You can also favorite items, view your favorites section, and share them via Twitter and Facebook.

The text and video clips accompanying the images are concise and full of interesting details about each object.

I hope the app will be updated with more great selections in future. If you don’t have an opportunity to visit The Design Museum, this app is quite a nice introduction to it on the iPad.